Meet the 2012 Point Scholars

Cary Crall

Wells Fargo Point Scholar
Harvard Medical School Medicine

Cary Crall's activism for the LGBT community began at age 3 when he announced to his playgroup, “I don’t want to be a boy, I want to be a girl so I can wear nail polish.” He then painted his nails bright red.

Born into a devout Mormon family in Temecula, Calif., Crall values his religious tradition for teaching him to serve others as a way to find happiness. But as he became more confident in his sexual identity, Crall often felt the strain of a religious organization that failed to validate some of the most important parts of his humanity. The Mormon Church’s involvement in Proposition 8 was a turning point for Crall.

While a student at Brigham Young University, Crall risked being kicked out of school by submitting an opinion piece to the school’s newspaper challenging the Mormon Church’s support of Proposition 8. The letter drew national media attention after it was censored and removed from the newspaper’s archives.

For writing and then defending his letter, Crall was named one of The Advocate's "Forty Under 40.” But Crall's activism continues, with him fighting for non‐discrimination ordinances in his conservative Utah community and helping to make BYU safer and more supportive for its LGBT students. He is co‐president of Harvard Medical School’s LGBT student group, where he has initiated curriculum reform focused on improving health care disparities that affect LGBT people and other disadvantaged groups.